1.7  Section Summary: Writing as a Process

We use language for four general purposes:

1. informational
2. literary
3. critical
4. social

We score written works on the basis of five characteristics (traits or domains) of effective writing:

• Focus & Meaning
• Development & Content
• Organization
• Style & Language Use
• Mechanics & Conventions

Writer's Terms

Analyze: To analyze is to take apart or break down into parts. When you analyze a task, you read it carefully to see how many parts it has, who the audience is supposed to be, and so on. To analyze is to take something (like a task or a text) apart or break it down into parts so you can understand it.

Interpret: to interpret is to understand and explain the meaning of something, as in interpreting a map, a graph, or a poem or short story.

Task or Prompt: a prompt or task is a writing assignment, one that usually requires you to take a role as a writer, write to a specific audience, etc. A task could be informational, literary/critical, or persuasive. Although an independent writing tasks has no additional text for you to read, text-based tasks require you to base your response on your reading of a text or texts.

Text: A text is any piece of writing, from a recipe to a wanted poster to the last essay you wrote. Some of the prompts or tasks in this program have texts or reading that you must base your answers on.

Rubric: A rubric is a numbered scoring guide that tells you what things look like at each level. The 6 box for Focus & Meaning tells you what an essay scored a 6 for that characteristic will look like. A rubric is a scoring guide that is used to judge the quality of a writing.

Characteristic / Trait / Domain: Our scoring rubrics are made up of the five characteristics or qualities or traits that make writing effective. Each characteristic is shown on a 6-point or 4-point scale on the rubric.

Focus & Meaning: how well a controlling idea or main idea is established which accomplishes the purposes of all parts of the task.

Development & Content: writing in enough detail to support main ideas.

Organization: showing direction, purpose, and unity.

Sentence Structure & Language Use: the extent to which the writing shows an awareness of audience and purpose through effetive word usage, style, and sentence variety.

Mechanics & Conventions: showing control and following the rules of grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.

The Process of Writing

The stages in the process of writing are not steps that you climb, one at a time, never looking back. If you picture them as steps, then picture yourself going up and down those steps more than once in the process of writing.

The stages are:

1. Prewriting - everything and anything you do to get started, including analyzing the task and any texts that might be involved.
   
   
2. Drafting - writing out the entire first version of the piece.
   
   
3. Revising - "re-seeing" what you wrote, matching it up with the task requirements, and making major changes if they are needed.
   
   
4. Editing - fixing mistakes and fine-tuning word choices.
   
   
5. Publishing - making the writing public by handing it in, submitting it for scoring, reading it aloud, giving it to another reader, or actually getting it into print through a paper or online publication.

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